Why Pakistan failed to concentrate on Osama ?
US: Facing a volley of questions over Osama bin Laden’s
presence in the country, Pakistan Wednesday said its preoccupation with
the “threat from the east” may be a reason why intelligence failed to
concentrate on locating the al- Qaeda leader.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani acknowledged that
while military intelligence’s preoccupation with India is a factor, the
possibility of that there are individuals within Pakistan who provided a
support network to bin Laden has to be taken into account. “What you
have to understand is that every nation has its own preoccupations, and
we have a military and intelligence service that has always been concern
about the threat from the east.”
So they have a threat perception which is not always the threat
perception that you and I may have,” Haqqani told the popular Charlie
Rose Show in an interview.
He said it is possible that people within Pakistan’s security
establishment just did not take trying to locate bin Laden as seriously
as they should have. “We are glad that our American partners were able
to piece together the information that they did to focus on this
information, much of which they got from us,” he said.
Haqqani said having bin Laden protected by the government or the
intelligence could not have been good for Pakistan but the fact that he
was staying in the country for long does leave Pakistan with some
unanswered questions. “So we couldn’t have done it deliberately.
All that is possible is that there are individuals within Pakistan
who provided a support network for Osama bin Laden,” he said.
“Pakistanis has to get worried about why did he choose Pakistan as
the place to live.
Obviously he felt comfortable there, and that is something that we
will deal with the question and find the answer,” he said.
Ever since US Special Forces killed bin laden in a covert operation
in the heart of Pakistan, questions have been raised over the country’s
role in keeping him there.
While the US has clearly said that it did not share information with
Pakistani officials as it feared they might leak it out to the targets,
Britain and France too have said that Pakistan’s needs to clarify its
position.
Haqqani, however, said Pakistan’s longstanding cooperation and
intelligence sharing with the US cannot be discounted. PTI Washinton,
Thursday, AFP |